Wayward

Nightmare Realized

 The Ragnus seemed infinitely long as Tib watched it grow closer in the viewport. Its beacons blinking at separate intervals were almost mesmerizing to Tib. Laurent skimmed the edge of the hull plating as they approached the main port side landing bay. The hull plating flying past helped put into perspective the speed the vastness of space was concealing. To Tib it was more than just his temporary home or a symbol of the the mighty Terran Fleet. It was millions upon millions of credits as well, perhaps even billions now considering how long the Ragnus had been been serving her navy. Although that was still a small fortune of credits these ships were cheaper to produce compared to something as large the Andromeda capital ships. The Ragnus still commanded her respect however, no matter what you were to classify an Odysseus class cruiser as, they still remained bruisers in a skirmish. Some of the plates passing by bore reminders of some of the skirmishes the Ragnus had made her presence known in. "Are you certain this issue poses no threat to the Ragnus," he heard Laurent say. "To be honest with you Mr. Laurent, I'm not certain but it is nothing to continue to stress over." Tib had trouble believing that himself. He knew he could perform any task at hand to fix the situation, but sometimes the universe has different plans. The craft began to slow as Laurent maneuvered into a straight shot for the landing approach. In about thirty seconds Tib would be on his way as fast as he could the Trans-Luminal Core. Tib was already standing up holding onto one of the overhead structural support beams. Tib felt the jolt of the hydraulic landing gear hitting the deck plating. As quickly as Tib felt the jolt of the struts he had already hit the emergency release on this side door and was running as hard as he could against the slick deck plating to the nearest lift. Tib paid no mind to the ships coming and going and the flight crews and crewmates scattered about the flight deck as he maneuvered through them. The lift hissed open and the walk way around it lit up as Tib approached it. He slowed down as he entered it and press the emergency override button followed with his pass code to take him immediately to the Trans-Luminal Core. This was certainly going to upset more than a few people as all other lifts that might interfere with this route were halted, but Tib didn't care right now. "Sheeb, who's there with you?," Tib said into his comm. "Just Julian, Zo is with the Admiral working with the command center on the bridge right now," Sheeb said with a hint of frustration in her voice. "Has it gotten that bad?," Tib said feeling the lift beginning to slow. "Its not a fault now, it's become the Core's pattern," Sheeb said. Tib felt the lift come to a halt and the doors slid open to the engineering deck being bathed in light from the Core. The light alone was enough for Tib to know the Core was above normal level for energizing. Tib walked briskly over to his office and sat down at the main control terminal inside. The terminal hummed as the screen kicked on and the display showed the Core's current output pattern. What should have been a sea of waves was instead of constant rise and nosedive half way through the energy crest of the cascading photon harness. This had to be glitch related to the Core's photon chamber, or something at least with the generating cycle of the artificial gravity well itself. "Tiberius, do you have control of the situation?," he heard Maxwell's gruff voice over the office intercom. "Working on it right now, Admiral, can I have my other engineer sent back down here?," Tib said trying to refrain from a confrontation with Maxwell during a situation like this. "No, Lieutenant Commander Zophia will be staying among the bridge crew during this ordeal," Maxwell said. Tib could almost feel the Admiral's pompous attitude through the speakers above him. He was starting to get a feeling that this was about to spiral out of control. "I expect this inconvenience to be dealt with shortly," Maxwell said with a tone cold enough Tib could imagine it was the same tone of voice he used when he gave the order to leave the Endeavour's crew for dead. "Semper Dicata," Tib said with annoyance. He stood up from his terminal and walked as fast as he could to Sheeb who was tending to the Core's main terminal by herself as Tib's engineering crew ran amongst the deck and by her. "Sheeb, what do you think?," he said leaning against the rails beside the terminal. "Whatever it is the computers engineering syntax can't make heads or tails of it," she said as she kept punching in different diagnostic scenarios. "Have you tried resetting the Core's reaction computer?," Tib asked as he looked into the display of the flow of photon packets flowing into the Core's main chamber. "We both know what will happen if that goes wrong," she said. "That's not gonna happen, you know the computers back up sequence would begin before any run-away reactions," Tib said with a small hint of annoyance. "Tib, Sheeb, give me a sit-rep," he heard Zo come though on Sheeb's comm. "We're going to attempt a reaction control computer reset. He heard Zo talk amongst the bridge crew. Tib sat in quiet in contempt. He was Chief of Engineering. There would be no discussion, as far as Tib saw it, the reset would take place. "Negative, Tib, Maxwell is denying any attempt of major propulsion work at this time, just try to keep it under control," Zo said. A realization struck Tib. "Zo," Tib said leaning over Sheeb for his voice to be heard clearly. "Listening, Tib," Zo answered sharply. "Reason for refusal?," Tib said as he looked among the crew bustling through deck to different stations. "The Admiral doesn't want to risk a run-away reaction," Zo said after waiting a moment. Tib tapped his wrist comm and patched himself directly to the Admiral. "Tiberius, your concerns?," Maxwell answered. "Admiral you do realize the situation at hand with this type of wave fluctuation?," Tib asked as he moved around Sheeb and signaled for her to head to the office and continue her work as he would look for Julian. "Inform me, Chief," Maxwell said. "Complete cascade failure, Sir, the reaction chamber isn't rated for that type of stress, the whole system might need a reset, if we pull out of orbit and, -" "This ship is not leaving orbit Tiberius," The Admiral cut off Tib, "control the wave down to levels it would be safe for a reset then reset the system." "Yes, Sir," Tib said as he cut off the transmission. As Tib kept walking he found Julian heading towards him from a terminal cluster. "Tib, I'm glad you're back aboard," he said as he patted Tib's shoulder. "Julian this about to get bad, head back to the office," Tib said as he walked past Julian and kept walking down the deck to observe the crew carrying out their duties. Julian stopped for a second and watched Tib before heading to the office. He wondered what Tib meant.